The insurgents’ spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, stated on his X account that “the deadly extermination campaign orchestrated against the populations in eastern DRC by the regimes of Kinshasa and Bujumbura (Burundi) continues unabated this Monday.”
Kanyuka added that exchanges of fire with heavy and light weapons between the Wazalendo militias and the Congolese Army in the city of Sange resulted in the deaths of several civilians, as well as some Wazalendo fighters attempting to flee the front lines.
“The AFC/M23 condemns in the strongest possible terms these barbaric attacks deliberately targeting civilians,” the spokesperson stated in the message, adding that these acts constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the DRC suffered shelling of towns along the Kamanyola-Uvira axis in the Ruzizi plain of South Kivu province, with projectiles launched from Bugarama, Rwanda.
Muyaya considered these belligerent acts in Kigali to be an affront to the US mediation and the several guarantors of the agreement signed on December 4 in the United States, and noted that, in addition to civilian casualties, these attacks destroyed several schools, healthcare centers, and homes.
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